The invention relates to a method of registering surfaces using curvature data and in particular to a method of registering a patient surface created from patient range data with a model surface created from patient image data.
Three-dimensional models of a patient, derived using medical imaging techniques (e.g. CT, MR), are useful in both planning and performing surgical procedures. U.S. Pat. No. 5,740,802, assigned to the assignee of the present application, discloses a system that aligns live video of the patient and models generated from medical imaging to facilitate surgery. In smooth regions, without prominent landmarks, it is difficult to align the image data with the model data.